Podcast Episodes

Feed Your Soil, Cool Season Edition

We are transitioning from the summer gardening season to cool season vegetables and flowers. However, maybe you don’t want to put in cool season crops. A word to the wise: don’t leave your fading sum…

Published on 8 hours ago

Who's Eating the Tomatoes?

Don from Indiana has a late summer visitor to his tomato plants. He is not pleased:

“I flicked 10 of these “bad boys” off one of my tomato plants last night. Ten!

I look at this plant every day. I wate…

Published on 3 weeks ago

More Tips for a Successful Garden

While editing Episode 406 of the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast (out now), I was taking copious notes, about all the great garden tips Don Shor and I discussed in an episode that was ostensib…

Published on 1 month ago

This Newsletter is for the Birds

In the podcast (above) retired UC Farm Advisor Rachel Long has tips for attracting songbirds to your property.

They're nice to look at, sing wonderfully and eat insects.

No, we're not talking about the…

Published on 1 month, 1 week ago

Garden Tips from the Experts

One of the best places to get your garden questions answered (or pick up the 2026 Sac Co Master Gardener Gardening Guide and Calendar) is at the annual gathering of Master Gardeners, gardening profes…

Published on 1 month, 2 weeks ago

Drip Irrigation: How Long Do I Water?

90% of all plant problems are water related, either too much or too little.

Compounding the problem: gardeners who are operating a drip irrigation system but using a sprinkler mentality.

The Beyond Th…

Published on 2 months ago

Aromatic Plants, and Roses Too!

This edition of the newsletter is a deeper dive into this week’s Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast, Episode 398, “Aromatic Plants, Plus Roses!”

Here, we’ll see what these “shows for the nose” lo…

Published on 2 months, 4 weeks ago

Grow a Gratitude Garden

The above audio track is from a long time ago, when things were - at the very least -tense. It was during the initial panic as COVID-19 struck the United States, back in May of 2020. The confusion ar…

Published on 3 months ago

Prune Off Tomato Flowers?

One question I have been getting a lot of lately: Should I prune off (snip off, pinch out) the first tomato flowers that appear, in order to get more tomatoes later?

Those early tomato flowers, especi…

Published on 3 months, 1 week ago

Growing Microgreens

Today’s Beyond the Garden Basics Newsletter expands upon a topic we were briefly discussing in Episode 395 of the Garden Basics Podcast, “Survival Garden Basics”. In this case, the short chat was abo…

Published on 3 months, 2 weeks ago